A friend of mine once remarked that CR seesm like a great magazine "until they write about something you actually know a bit about..." and that's the problem with CR. They're great when it comes to quantifiable things like repair frequency, reliability, warranty information and so forth. They're much less useful when it comes to reporting on subjective things, or on technical matters. That's a problem with trying to review every possible consumer item; you can't be an expert on everything. Sure, CR has their own labs and testers, but they're as likely as not, when confronted with something they can't quantify, to come up with some arbitrary measure and then rate products on that. For example, I've read some hilarious HiFi reviews that never involved actually *listening* to units. Instead, they take some statistic they consider to be critical and rate all units on that. Computer reviews often are very superficialyou'd do far, far better with PC or a similar magazine. And some of their financial advice on life insurance, mortgages and investment has been rather narrow, preaching single solutions for all.
So yeah, read CR when you're buying that next vacuum cleaner, or toaster, or popcorn popper, but before making any major purchasers or investments I'd look a bit further than the pages of CR.
I consider CR's product testing and research of tangible consumer goods to be among their strongest assets. When I bought my car and digital camera, CR was the first place I turned for market research. The product tests, comparisons, and recommendations are first rate. Also, CR gave this tool-clueless read a good education on cordless drills. :-) CR buys all consumer goods themselves and doesn't accept gifts or advertising, which helps them maintain impartiality.
CR does have some biases though. They're very luke-warm toward any type of alternative medicine. Several years ago, I laughed when they pronounced acupuncture, practiced successfully for thousands of years, a sham. Overall, they're quite mainstream, not taking into account purchasing factors increasing numbers of people now consider, such as whether an item is made with slave labor or tested on animals. Often, they'll only review a token "green" household product made of recycled paper or non-toxic ingredients. However, they do cover hybrid automobiles, but not fully electric ones. You may not always find the brand you're looking for within a product category. Their report on luggage might not cover the brand of suitcase you're evaluating, but does provide good advice on what to what to look for when choosing a suitcase.
Recommendations: There's probably less of a need for CR now that one can find so many reviews and testimonials on the Internet. Yet they're fabulous for side-by-side professionally-conducted product comparisons of features and performance, as well as information of interest to consumers. If you only want to consult CR to research an occasional purchase, it may suffice to check CR out of the public library. But if you like to keep up on product technology and issues of importance to consumers, you may benefit from a subscription. When making a purchasing decision, don't automatically buy the best-rated item in the category. Carefully evaluate how the product features fit your lifestyle, plus any price/feature tradeoffs. Two years ago, I purchased the top of the line digital camera, found it difficult to use, and traded it in for an easier to use digital camera rated a bit less highly but which works better for me. Overall, despite its flaws, CR is one of my favorite magazines and I read it cover-to-cover the day it arrives in my mailbox.
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Consumer Reports is in a league by itself. Where else are you going to find reliable information and comparisons on consumer products without the conflict of interest of paid advertising? However, it's a small monthly magazine; so don't be surprised if (1) several issues review no products you're interested in and (2) the item you're thinking of buying was last reviewed six years ago and the information is completely out-of-date.A less serious problem is that the magazine's reviews occasionally give a product a mediocre rating for reasons that I find picky or insignificant. However, their criteria are clear, so it's not hard to know when this is the case. From time to time, they also seem to miss the point. For example, a faucet-mounted water filter is said to clog easily, when in fact it's designed to cut off after so many gallons. Removing the filter cartridge and reinserting it--which the manufacturer understandably advises against--takes 10 seconds and returns the flow to normal.
Nevertheless, I like the idea of what Consumer Reports offers and represents. That alone might be a reason to subscribe, if you have some disposable income for a good cause.
I don't subscribe and as someone who lives and earns modestly by choice, I probably never will. Instead, I consult Consumer Reports at my public library whenever I'm considering a purchase that the magazine might be helpful with. This has two advantages: (1) I save the price of a subscription and (2) I feel less disappointed and frustrated when it offers no useful information on a particular product (about 60% of the time).
If you buy a lot of consumer products beyond the essentials, then your chances of finding the magazine helpful are increased, the price of a subscription perhaps no problem, and the magazine is probably for you. If you're not sure, consult the magazine at the library before you're next couple of purchases. Then you'll know for yourself whether it's worth having your very own copy in your mailbox every month.
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I've subscribed to this magazine for years. First of all, I love magazines that don't accept advertising. They are committed to helping consumers make good, educating buying decisions. Each issue reviews a variety of products from cars to canned soup, from CD players to cell phones, from dishwashers to drinking water they have it all.There's an option to have total access to Consumer Reports online. It's $24/year if you aren't a subscriber, and $19/year if you are a subscriber. Even though I subscribe, I still pay the money to have the wealth of information at my fingertips when I need it. I'm not organized enough to find the September 2002 issue handy when my freezer breaks down and I have to hurry out and buy a new one. When our family needs a major (or smaller) appliance, we ALWAYS check out Consumer Reports. Though we don't always buy their Best Buy or top pick, it alerts us about things to look for, features to consider, and what brands are more reliable. I love having all that information when I go to the store to buy something.
I enjoy their Letters section, their short articles, recalls, and updates on previous product reviews. When you subscribe to CR you get the 2004 Buyers Guide, which is a handy thing to have around the house! This is one magazine subscription that I never allow to expire.
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If you want the unbiased FACTS on the things you are considering buying, I say go with CR. It is the most venerable consumer review source with the deepest pockets and largest audience and most experience, and has scruples. It does not accept advertising in its pages, a rarity today. I refer to CR before making any major purchase and find its articles entertaining and informative and written with common sense and far-sightedness.I do have some beefs with CR, which is a nervous Nelly Yankee publication with obnoxious eccentricities that need to be weeded out.
1. Their marketing dept. likes to mail people to death with offers for their online service, renew subscriptions, etc. etc. Give it a rest already! CR needs to quit wasting membership fees on junk mail. I have received at least 12 envelopes from CR in a year's time. And I have a 5 yr subscription already! NO excuse for that kind of wasteful misuse of funds.
2. CR just considers a limited number of brand names for items such as plasma or LCD or CRT tv's. Go to any store, you will see a dozen brands that CR has NO rating for. Inexcusable really.
3. CR's focus is totally on cars. Each issue, about 1/4th the magazine is blown on new cars costing $25,000 $75,000. That's real sweet if you're in the upper middle class and buy new cars every few years. For those of us who prefer used cars it's just a waste of space. Why not leave the car ratings for the annual report? Why put a new car review in every cotton-pickin' issue?
4. CR says "no advertising" but in reality it spends space advertising its OWN products such as "Put CR in your Will" (a program where you leave your money to CR, obscene really) and the car-rating thing and the online service and then an annuity for seniors.
5. Open up a CR, and it's a battle fighting the postcards hooked into the paper. Being a consumer mag, they should KNOW already that consumers hate that. It's just a tacky waste of paper and an annoyance to the reader.
6. CR's lobbying wing is down on supplements and tries to get over-the-counter substances transformed into prescription-only affairs, or banned altogether. Such as the natural herbs, Kava, Ephedra, and the list goes on. All in the name of "safety". The last straw was when I read that CR was trying to clamp down on sam-e, which I purchase and consume on a regular basis. The idea that my membership fees are going to be used to force me to get a doctor's prescription and pay 10x more for the same pills, makes me think that CR will not get a "5 star" rating here, but instead a "3 star" rating. CR should reconsider their notion that Government must prohibit/limit citizen's access to substances.
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